Latest Aorus 15 laptop drops a whole bunch of features to become much more affordable than before

Aorus laptops have traditionally been ultra-slim, ultra-sleek, and ultra-fast with high price points to reflect the gamer aesthetic and performance. The Aorus X5 v7 and X5 v8, for example, launched for about $2500 with higher-end SKUs going for even more.

Aorus' newest model takes a more down-to-Earth approach. Instead of aiming for the flagship enthusiast segment, the Aorus 15 is a mainstream offering that trims some of the auxiliary features found on the last generation Aorus X5 v8. Per-key RGB lighting, Thunderbolt 3, G-Sync, dedicated Macro keys, and 4K UHD are all gone in favor of lower price points. The RTX 2060 and RTX 2070 SKUs, for example, can currently be found online for $1700 or $2000 USD to be much cheaper than the X5 series at launch.

We quite like the change in strategy because the Aorus 15 can provide even faster gaming performance than the previous generation while being less expensive at the same time. Core components like the CPU, GPU, display, and chassis rigidity can still be of high quality for a great first impression in spite of what the lower price may suggest. We can see the Aorus family appealing to more mainstream gamers should Gigabyte expand the Aorus 15 lineup to additional screen sizes.